VOLUNTARY WELFARE WORK
SIR,—I have been most interested by Lady Iris Capell's article Effort on Offer, and find myself in a glow of agreement that Acts of Parliament alone are rarely able to bring about the state of affairs aimed tit by their planners. In the nineteenth century Shaftesbury set out to draw up a Bill prohibiting the use 'of child labour in mines and factories, and in my sixth-form days I could have said how many such Bills actually became Acts. But by the time a really effective law, with no loopholes, existed, several generations of children had grown up in the kind of employment Shaftesbury gave years of effort to crushing out.
Then, however carefully planned an Act may be, it may be quite ineffective if Local Authorities do not use the powers the Act gives them. If the provisions, for example, of the M.D. Acts of 1913-1926 had been carried out by all Local Authorities, the Curtis Report of 1946 would at leasr not have had to concern itself with the problem of defectives living in Public Assistance wards " not approved for the reception of defectives," in company with old people and young normal children. Here is a most valuable outlet for voluntary effort by those who nave the time, the urge and that dynamic quality which will carry with it a whole committee, and only with this kind of effort can, for instance, the Education Act of 1944 bring to the children all the benefits and outlets for ability which its planners envisaged.
Voluntary effort in the many ways listed by Lady Iris Capell made up, in wartime, the great corporate contribution of the W.V.S., and in many places similar work is in need of helpers. For example, child welfare clinics under Local Authorities can often only distribute such things as orange juice with the help of voluntary workers, and family planning clinics often need, to work with their professional staff, volunteers to help with stores, and with that side of the work which an almoner would do in a hospital. London women have an exceptional opportunity in L.C.C. care committee work. I know that this is not only in urgent need of helpers, but also that care committee workers have been assured by an official voice (female) from County Hall that voluntary workers will continue to be needed. Official and full information as to care committee work would gladly be given by Miss Lazarus, Alverstone House, Magee Street, Kennington Park Estate, S.E. 11. Trying to be brief where I would like enthusiastically to expand, I would describe the worker as a necessary link between the school and school medical officer on the one side and on the other side the home. Care committee work is concentrated on the welfare of the schoolchild, and the worker, it seems to me, might be said to have as her two chief aims first the ensuring that those rememal or preventive treatments prescribed by the school doctor are carried out and not just put aside by a mother who is too busy, or harassed or handicapped, sometimes, even to try to understand what is asked of her. Of course, in the majority of cases the home understands and co-operates with the school doctor ; where it does not there is the need for explana- tion, encouragement, help of different kinds, to that the child may, when he leaves school, have been helped to be as fit as possible and as the School Medical Service was designed to make him. The second aim of the care worker is to bring to the notice of the school doctor, and to any other special clinics he may advise, the difficulties the mother may have at home in dealing with the child, and I would like to say that very often the mother herself comes to see the school doctor and ask his help, and then the care worker can be very patently the link in the necessary home visits and " case work."
The care worker, like myself, may have to do her voluntary work with shopping-basket in hand ; her enquiries about Johnny's molten appointment for dental treatment may mingle with discussion about the nearest available potato ; she may have only a few hours a week to spare, and even then be only able to spare that in term-time when her own family is at school. The fact that even such meagre help is used by care com- mittees, and my own appreciation of the interest and widened under- standing I gain from the wotk,,Leatrne toinakeAviot I tiklitrng, Care work to the notice of the unemployed voluntary workers so temptingly conjured up by Lady Capell's article.—Yours, &c.,
DEPTFORD CARE WORKER.
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